Remembering the Loose Cannon

"He's the new Loose Cannon" that phrase has been used so many times with certain up and coming wrestlers, most recently Jon Moxley/Dean Ambrose. 15 years after his death and people are still trying to be just like Brian Pillman. As I've said before I became a wrestling fan in 1997, Pillman was my first favourite wrestler ever and I think that speaks volumes considering he passed away in October of that year. It's been 15 years since his passing and I thought I would take a look at his career and the massive impact the man left behind.
Brian had bad luck from the very beginning of his life, he gained multiple throat polyps as a child and had to have 40 operations before he was 3 which resulted in his voice being like it was. Pillman's bad luck would continue when he tried to get a football career going, while he was seen as extremely talented his size was a huge drawback he would get drafted by teams but wouldn't last too long. His football coach at the time recommended that Pillman try to get into wrestling and lead him to the Hart family dungeon, possibly seen as one of the best starts anyone could get at the time as the family produced many superstars and Hall of Famers. Brian would start his career in Stampede and form a tag team with Bruce Hart, the duo won the tag titles twice. Brian was known as a student of the game and was always learning about the business he would also become known as "Flying" Brian as he introduced a high flying style to the company. It was this style that arguable got him noticed by NWA and he got signed, a big thing considering he was only in the business for 3 years at the time.
Brian debuted for the NWA in 1989, not changing his style one bit. He quickly got noticed and entered a feud with Lex Luger for the US title. Their match at Halloween Havoc of that year was awesome even more so because Luger was never the best worker. The NWA then decided to put Pillman in a tag team with Tom "Z-Man" Zenk, the duo won the NWA US tag titles, sadly for as much success they got the team just didn't click and was broken up rather quickly. Pillman would become involved in a feud with the 4 Horsemen mainly Barry Windham this would lead to a 5 star match in the form of War Games in 1991, Brian would lose the match after El Gigante threw in the town after Sid Vicious KILLED him with 2 awful powerbombs. Pillman would then lose a Loser leaves Town match later on and become the "Yellow Dog", a gimmick much like Dusty's Midnight Rider which would be copied by many indy wrestlers. But he would become reinstated and with the invention of the Light Heavyweight title Brian became the focal point of the title leading to an amazing feud between him and Jushin "Thunder" Liger, the match they had at Superbrawl which opened the show was incredible and still holds up today (in my view). Soon after that Brian would turn heel and team with Barry Windham, at Starrcade 1992 they would challenge Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas for the NWA/WCW Tag titles in an amazing match. Soon after the team split, with Barry focusing on the NWA World title but he brought a replacement in the form of "Stunning" Steve Austin and the Hollywood Blondes would be born. They would feud with Steamboat & Douglas for the unified tag titles and on March 27th 1993 they would win the title. The duo really shined and were the tag team of the year in 1993, they would feud with the 4 Horsemen which showed how entertaining they could be outside of the ring as well as in it. Sadly the Blondes, well Austin and Steven Regal who replaced an injured Pillman, would lose the tag title to Arn Anderson and one of the worst horsemen ever in the form of Paul Roma. Soon after the team split and had a short feud with Austin winning overall.
One of his forgotten moments was that he would team with Shane Douglas in a one off ECW appearance in 1994 against Ron Simmons & Too Cold Scorpio. Back in WCW Pillman kind of got lost in the shuffle for a while until Fall Brawl 1995 where he would get involved in the Anderson/Flair match. After some typical WCW booking after Flair turn face and back again within a month a new 4 horsemen was born, with Chris Benoit being the 4th man. It was during this time that Pillman became developing the Loose Cannon gimmick, a gimmick that would blur the lines of fact and fiction. Coming off as a wild, uncontrollable maniac he really pushed everything he did. Pillman would go on to create 2 of the most infamous moments in wrestling history. In a match with Eddie Guerrero Brian would mess with Bobby Heenan, who was commentating outside of the ring. Heenan, who had neck problems, would yell out "What the Fuck are You Doing?" on the mic and then would walk away for most of the match. The second was more famous at Superbrawl 6 Brian was booked to face Kevin Sullivan in a strap match, Pillman ran down and the 2 proceeded to just hit each other until Brian grabbed the mic and said "I respect you bookerman". This would ultimately end up with Pillman working Bischoff and getting his release from the company.
ECW would jump on this, like many men at the time, and Pillman would debut soon after leaving WCW. The first reaction he got was a great one from the crowd but Brian turned on them quickly  and made the die hard ECW fans hate him. Pillman's run with ECW would not last long and mainly consisted of his insane promos building towards a match with Shane Douglas. At the same time both WCW and WWE wanted to sign Pillman. But his bad luck would hit again and he would get in a car accident which caused a massive amount of damage to his body.
Surprisingly WWE did in fact sign him, injuries and all. He took part in a very honest press conference after his signing but would quickly go back to his Loose Cannon promo style soon after debuting. His promo at King of the Ring 1996 was particularly great in my view. Pillman with Owen Hart teamed with Steve Austin in Austin's campaign to get Bret Hart to return to face him. But Pillman suddenly changed his tune and Austin would attack him, during which he created the now infamous "Pillmanizer" move where you close a chair on a persons body and you jump on it. That angle would lead to one of the most controversial moments in wrestling history in "Pillman's got a gun". Within time Pillman would recover, not fully mind you, would return to TV. He would be a commentator for Shotgun Saturday Night with Jim Ross (a team I would love to listen too) and he would become part of the Hart Foundation, being seen as one as their own. Pillman would have very few matches in WWE, he teamed with Jim Neidhart against the Legion of Doom on Raw, would have a great brawl with Steve Austin on Raw and would be part of the fantastic USA/Canada feud with the incredible 10 man tag at Calgary Stampede. But Pillman's biggest feud was with Goldust, he lost to Goldust at Summerslam and was forced to wear a dress. The two would have a rematch with Pillman winning and gained Marlena's services. At Badd Blood 1997 Brian was scheduled to face Dude Love but that was the day that Pillman sadly died. He passed away from a heart condition quietly in his hotel room. By the time of his death Brian was a heavy drug user, nothing illegal and it was all to help him kill the pain he was dealing with on a daily basis. On the Raw the next night Vince McMahon interviewed his wife, mainly trying to cover their tracks and make it look like WWE were not responsible for it, it was classless on their part.
When you look back at Brian Pillman's career 2 things stand out, he was a very under-rated worker in my view. He's never seen as one of the best workers of all time but you'd rarely get a bad match from him. The second was that he created endless controversy during his time as the "Loose Cannon". There are endless stories of Pillman living the gimmick 24/7. You could argue that he probably should of only lived it when the cameras were on but you could also argue that he made the gimmick believeable at a time when wrestling was hard to believe. Like I said when I began this post this character has become one of the copied gimmicks ever, Superstar Billy Graham was the most copied style of the 80's and 90's and you can say that Pillman was the most copied of the 2000's and beyond. 
I don't know what it was about Brian that got my attention but it stuck with me. The L in my "L.R.K.P" tattoo is for him, I loved the wildness he showed but I also liked the idea of him being a completely different person to people who actually knew he. To me Brian's career was one of the most impactful in the history of wrestling. You only get a handful of guys who you can safely say made a lasting impact in wrestling and Brian was one of those guys.